The one thing everyone should know about internal government reviews, especially sprints and reports, is that they are not intended to be independent.
The Government uses them to find the evidence for what it wants to do, so it knows exactly whom it appoints and what the outcome would be.
Hence, it is concerning that a leaked Home Office review into Government extremism states the following - that we need to reverse the rollback of non crime hate incidents, that those who make accusations of two tier policing are extremists, that grooming gangs are an alleged problem, frequently exploited by the far right, and that spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories are signals of extremism.
This review was commissioned for the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper last autumn, following the Southport attack, to back up the Government's failed response to that outrage.
Jacob Rees-Mogg reacts to a leaked Home Office report commissioned by Yvette Cooper
GB News
It's already faced criticism by an extremism tsar for ignoring anti blasphemy extremism, and that the issue of Islamism was not properly discussed in the review's presentation.
The report has been leaked to Policy Exchange, which has revealed the report's intention to gravitate away from ideological based counter-extremism towards a behaviour based approach.
Now this could be sensible, but we know that non crime hate incidents are bogus based on feelings rather than evidence. They also waste police time who have better things to do than pursue non crime. If it's not a crime, what are they doing with it?
The treatment of Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson shows the absurdity of these processes. We also know that two-tier policing allegations are regrettably accurate. When the Black Lives Matter mob tore down the Colston statue, Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner took the knee, when people rioted in Southport, they were met with the full force of the law by the police. Quite rightly in my view.
But even worse, the Reverend Starmer would not tell us about Axel Rudakubana, saying it was subjudice and that he might prejudice the trial, whilst at the same time the Home Office tweeted that those merely arrested in relation to the riots were criminals before they'd found guilty of anything. A clear example of a two-tier approach to justice.
The idea that rapist gangs is merely an alleged problem that is exploited by the far right is an insult to the thousands of young women who were the victims of this scandal.
And we know that the Wuhan lab leak theory was once considered a conspiracy, and yet it is now believed to be the most likely source of Covid 19 by the CIA, which is not a body that normally promotes conspiracy theories.
This review, the Home Office review, was conducted by civil servants, but on the Government's instructions, and what it has turned out is the Government's view, what it was until it became embarrassing, Labour wants to reinforce non-crime hate incidents.
It thinks allegations of two-tier policing are a far right narrative, and it fundamentally wants to clamp down on freedom of speech.
The good news is that the Government can't get away with this. It's been shamed out of pursuing these censorious policies following the Southport and grooming gang scandals.
Public opinion has drifted so far away from this Government in such a short time that the moment it tries to criminalise its dissenters, it will probably collapse altogether.
